This application claims benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-125610 filed on Apr. 26, 2002, the contents of which are incorporated by the reference.
The present invention relates to a portable telephone set, in which a plurality of component-mounted units are provided in correspondence to respective function blocks, into which the functions of the portable telephone set are grouped, the units being slidable in use to a stacked state and developed states.
The usual portable telephone set has such a foldable structure to meet the demand for size reduction that its body is constituted by two units of substantially angular thick board types with stem ports of the units coupled together by a coupling member having a hinge structure. Normally, the portable telephone set is used in a folded state, and at the time of speech communication it is used in a developed state. Recently, a slide type structure may be adopted to provide a more compact set than the foldable portable telephone set.
This slide type structure has a first and a second unit, on which components for attaining a first and a second function of a portable telephone set capable of being operated for predetermined operations are separately mounted, the second unit being slidable in the longitudinal direction relative to the first unit. This structure is carried such that the two units are overlapped or stacked, and for speech communication of the like the two units are caused to slide in the longitudinal direction and extended.
As an example, a “Portable Telephone Set” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-144386, has a display unit having a large area display for character display thereon. For compact accommodation, the display unit is slidably moved over a low use frequency operation key group to cover the same key group. When using an operation key, the display unit is slidably moved to expose the operation key.
In the meantime, recent portable telephone sets have become utilized not only for speech communication but also as browser for internet and like purposes, electronic mail transmitting/receiving terminals, and portable data terminals having such additional functions as schedule management. For this reason, the display contents are versatile including large quantities of character data and images, the display is also in a trend of increasing size, and portable telephone sets provided with an optical function part for versatility increase and performance improvement are in practical use.
A function example of the optical function part is an electronic camera function. Specifically, an electronic camera which is mounted on or inside the portable telephone set body to take out image data and transmit the taken-out image data to the opposite side. Another function example is a fingerprint certification function. In this function, only proper user is allowed to operate the machine. Also, for confirming the transmitter as such, the machine body is provided with an optical aperture for fingerprint read-out. The certification is made with a finger pressed against the optical aperture.
Since the prior art portable telephone set has various functions mounted on it and also is complicated in operation, it is constructed such that its necessary locality among operation buttons, display and optical function parts such as electronic camera and fingerprint recognition unit is exposed for operation or display in correspondence to a function that is provided. Therefore, although it is possible to improve the convenience of use, since the functions are grouped in two separate function blocks, limitation is imposed on the compactness when carrying the set. Improvement in this connection has been greatly desired.